Ok, so we’ve picked up Chappy and Cooney, and Fletch and Licha are going to go around again. These guys should all be best 22, though there is genuine competition for their spots, so some kids will be missing out on development opportunities.
The basic gamble is that these players give us our best chance of winning a flag in either 2015/16, but if they fail then we might look back when they are gone and wish that NOB/Stein/Jerret/Gleeson/Browne had another 30 games under their belts.
I guess this “top-up” policy has been somewhat dictated to us by the sorry saga. Lack of high draft picks, plus the desire to give the fans some immediate success before they lose interest. Getting guys like Chappy and Cooney to the club also show the general public that we can’t be hated all that much.
These guys are good for bigger crowds, more members and media opportunities, plus their leadership and experience is highly valued.
Fletch reaching the 400 milestone will be a valuable legacy for the club, and Licha leaving for Richmond would have looked bad. I think Licha might have been saved by the draft pick issue.
In any case all of these decisions to have these players go around in 2015 make sense individually, it’s only when you look at all 4 of them together it seems like we are working to a top up policy.
I guess the next question is, what level of success needs to be achieved for it not to be considered a failure? Winning a final won’t make it a success, though demanding a flag is probably asking a bit too much. I think if we can win a prelim, people will be hard pressed to say we did the wrong thing, but anything short of that and I think there will be many highly critical of our list management.